Imagine life inside a laundry machine, that’s how it was in the year 2021–a rough and tumble ride.
With the pandemic situation going up, down and up again, and threats of the virus mutating in variants we didn’t imagine, life was still far from normal entering the second year of the Covid-19 era. Businesses were still generally down except for a few who have managed to reopen.
Still, the situation was shaky and tough.
What dimmed the lights for many Filipinos was the surge in cases in the third quarter which kept us locked down in our homes.
The surge in Covid-19 cases in September saw cases peaking at 22,455 on September 13. This placed the country’s 7-day moving average of the country’s Covid-19 cases to 17,937 cases. The 7-day moving average, however, peaked in the week of September 6 when it reached 18,274. September 6 recorded the second highest number of Covid-19 cases at 22,428.
By late in the year, Davao City loosened up its restrictions as the alert level status improved and the cases were down. Vaccination was also up after an aggressive campaign by the city government beginning with the barangay vaccination and senior citizens vaccination. The vaccination drive also went as far as the rural areas.
Despite the easening of restrictions, new threats from the Omicron variant and the surge of cases by the yearend still jeopardized what could have been a slow but sure trek towards recovery.
As it stands now, normalcy, specifically in business, is not expected until two to three years from now. That’s how the market experts view the prospects.
The key, however, to reverse the tide is for Dabawenyos to continue to be resilient, obedient and compliant.
